


Of Red Skies

by sapphire_child



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, PG
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-14
Updated: 2008-12-14
Packaged: 2019-01-22 22:10:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12491872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphire_child/pseuds/sapphire_child
Summary: After a particularly bad adventure on a turbulent planet the Doctor does his best to comfort Rose but soon finds himself needing her compassion instead.





	Of Red Skies

Her long hair shone like rose gold in the reddish light from the twin suns on Til and the Doctor took a moment to merely watch his companion from afar. She was deep in thought as she surveyed the landscape below her, pensive and pained.

The Doctor had officially brought her to the planet of Til to show her the famed music halls built by the Tillian emperor Cha’wi – a skilled musician who had been responsible for some of the universe’s most beautiful symphonies. In truth he’d also taken this trip because he’d been feeling homesick lately and the sky on Til was very similar to that of Gallifrey. It always soothed him to walk beneath a burnt sky instead of the strange blues that most worlds seemed to have. Not that he’d planned on telling Rose any of that but still.

Unfortunately he had gotten the date wrong (as usual) and instead of arriving in the heyday of Cha’wi they had turned up three hundred years later and in the middle of a rather nasty civil war between those Tillians with deep coral skin and their paler, peach coloured kin.

After a coup which led to the collapse of the empire almost fifty years previously, the power had shifted suddenly from the peach skinned Tillian’s to those who were coral. Consumed with revenge, the darker Tillians had not nearly felt ready to forgive and forget the millennia of servitude they had endured. Agreeable conduct between the two races had become all but non existent almost overnight.

Even now dark skinned militants still roamed the capital, attacking anyone not dark enough and driving them into the wild where they were forced to live in squalor. Those of mixed ascendancy were allowed to stay within the city limits but they were used only as servants and slaves and cross-colour fraternisation and breeding were both strictly prohibited.

It was racial discrimination as bad (or worse) as anything in Earths history and Rose had been horrified, desperately trying to explain to them that they were all the same and the colour of their skin didn’t mean anything. Her assurances that where she came from relationships between those of dark and light colour was not only legal, but also very common was met with outrage and she and the Doctor had both been escorted out of the city and back to the TARDIS at gun point.

And now she was just standing there, overlooking the city below, arms hung loose by her sides. She hadn’t said a word to him since they had left the city and he had left her to her thoughts for a time but now he really felt that they should be leaving. They were not welcome in this time.

“Rose?” She turned her face towards him as he circled around to stand beside her and the Doctor was surprised to see tears running down her cheeks. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t understand,” she whispered. “Why you didn’t even try an’ stop ’em.”

The Doctor was, for a moment, gobsmacked.

“Fixed point in time this,” he said after a moment, turning his gaze from her unhappy face to the crumbling city below him. Years of in-breeding had depleted the population and the occupied sections of the capital had lessened with it. “Can’t change it else it’ll create a paradox.”

Rose struggled with this for a moment. It hadn’t been all that long ago she had learnt that lesson for herself but she still didn’t understand why some things simply must be. She didn’t think the way the Doctor did – or at least she wouldn’t. She tended to see small details, things he often overlooked whereas he was used to considering the whole picture if you will, not just the curious shadow half hidden in the corner under the frame.

“But that’s what you do,” Rose said uncertainly. “You fix things. That’s why you’re the Doctor.”

A bitter smile touched the corner of the Doctors lips and then disappeared.

“Even the best Doctor can’t fix everything Rose.” He paused. “Or save everyone.”

“But all those people...”

“The war ends,” the Doctor assured her. “Takes years but...they sort themselves out and then go into the third age of Til. A peaceful world built on integration ’stead of just tolerance.”

Rose considered him for a moment, biting her lip. “An’...an’ what happens then?”

The Doctor hesitated – Rose had a habit of asking probing questions exactly when he didn’t want to answer them. “They get invaded by the Rezbarra. Nasty little buggers the Rezbarra.”

Rose looked pained. “And what happens to all the...?”

“Dead,” the Doctor said flatly. “Dead and gone.”

Choking on a sudden sob, Rose pushed her hair back from her face. “Does anybody every get a happy ending?” she mourned.

“Probably not,” the Doctor said and then amended, “But that’s just life. Sometimes it’s terrible and sometimes it’s just plain fantastic. Just like sometimes you can fix things an’ make em better and sometimes...well.”

Rose laughed humourlessly and sniffed loudly as she wiped her tears away.

“God. Look at me,” she said, embarrassed. “Taken halfway ’cross the universe and here I am cryin’ when I could be learnin’ things from you instead.” She turned to the Doctor and reached for his hand. “Tell me more about Til. So’s somebody remembers when it’s gone.”

Swallowing the Doctor gestured her over and she stepped underneath his arm easily, snaking an arm underneath his jacket to rest around his waist.

“Later maybe,” he said. “I’ll bring you back one day an’ we’ll go listen to that symphony I promised and I’ll tell you all about it.”

“S’beautiful,” Rose whispered as they both looked up at the darkening sky. While they had been speaking the suns had begun to set – one following the other like a small child playing tagalong with its mother. “How the sky’s all red and orange.”

“Yeah,”

“Bet you’ve seen loads of planets with skies like this,” Rose said wistfully.

“Less than you’d think,” the Doctor murmured, half to himself. “Not many planets got the right atmosphere to make this sort of colour.”

“Where else?” Rose presses, squeezing his waist gently. “What other planets?”

“Grysh,” he begins to recite them from memory and Rose listens intently. “Jubilee 4511, Meuphonium, Qeweau-Meweau...” he swallows in preparation before the final one. “...Gallifrey.”

“So all the planets in the whole universe...and there’s only six with a sky like this?” Rose wonders and the Doctor shrugs.

“Least six that I been to. Prob’ly a few more.”

Rose thinks for a moment and then suddenly becomes excited, turning to him appealingly. “Can we visit ’em? Please? I wanna see what they all look like.”

He doesn’t say anything for a moment, not trusting himself to speak. “Not Meuphonium,” he manages eventually. “Too dangerous for you there. An’ not Gallifrey.”

“What’s wrong with Gallifrey?” Rose asks, turning to him but she stops dead at the expression on his face. “Doctor?” she says uncertainly. “You...alright?”

“M’ fine,” he says brusquely and takes himself jerkily from her embrace, trying to cover himself with a plastered on smile. “C’mon you. S’time to get going.”

He doesn’t look back at her as he strides over to the TARDIS, merely assuming that she’ll follow him. He’s not surprised when he hears hurried footsteps and quick breaths from her as she tries to keep up with his much longer stride.

Once the door is open he continues to take large strides to the console and – still not looking at her – he begins to press buttons and play with levers and dials preparing to take them...somewhere not here. Somewhere with a sky that won’t make him remember...

“Doctor...”

He glances up and the image of her haloed in the red light from the door is enough to give him pause. For a moment she’s nothing short of breathtaking but then she steps inside and shuts the door and the moment is gone.

“What?” he says shortly, back to the controls again as she creeps up the ramp and comes to stand beside him. Distracted by her standing so close, he takes more time than necessary to adjust a knob (which in actuality is broken) but stops when he feels her small, warm paw cover his.

After a moment his gaze flits over to where their hands are resting, touching and only then does he dare meet her gaze. Her hazel eyes are fathomless, filled with the burden of compassion and she’s pressing her lips together as though to stop herself from blurting out something foolish.

“Rose...” he begins, unsure of what to say to her but then she reaches for him and pulls him down into an embrace. Her arms aren’t strong but he can still feel how tight she’s trying to hold him, as though she can fix him just through her touch. She’s so small that it’s difficult for her to hold him like this but he leans his forehead down anyway and touches it to her shoulder.

“M’sorry,” she whispers and he shuts his eyes against her denim shoulder and smiles gratefully.

“S’alright,” he returns and squeezes her back gently.


End file.
